A New Beginning

We are pleased to inform that since we embarked on raising funds for Eden School through the sale of our cakes, we have to date (since April 2010) raised a net sum of $1068.20 for the school. We must thank you, our supporters and fellow cake lovers, for your support in making this possible. We couldn't have done this without you, so a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who bought our cakes!

We are also happy to report that Eden School has met its target for their school building fund, and as such, with immediate effect, we will be channelling the funds from future cake orders to a new voluntary welfare organisation. Details will be announced soon, so check back again. We hope you will continue to support us as we begin a new chapter of "Hearts and Hands".

Hello Kitty Cake

A year ago, if you had asked me if I would be making kiddy cakes on a frequent basis, I would have answered without hesitation "Nah, not a kiddy cake person". Anyway, I eat my words. Here's the very pink Hello Kitty Cake I put together for my daughter's last day of preschool. I am going to miss her school and the super adorable little tikes in her class. As for the cake, I must say it's a nice change doing a 2D cake where nothing is going to collapse or shift, after all that 3D excitement.

Introducing Faithy

Isn't that the most amazing cake you have seen? Everything you see is EDIBLE, short of the cake board. I can't begin to imagine the amount of time spent creating this work of art. What a marvelous and unique present for the birthday boy! What a labour of love!

In case you are wondering, no I did not make that. The baker is Faithy, check out her blog at http://theamateurbaker.blogspot.com/ and at Facebook - Faithy Bakes for more amazing creations. Here are a few more samples.





If you would like to try one of these bespoke creations, you will be pleased to note you may now order Faithy's creations as part of the Hearts and Hands initiative, meaning all proceeds from these orders will go towards the adopted charity. The bespoke cakes start from a minimum order of $200. Considering the amount of sweat and toil that goes into the creation of one of these babies, the quality of the ingredients used, the fact that the cakes are one of a kind which you can't get in a regular bakery, and the fact that the cakes are for a good cause ... need I say more? Personally, I think it is a steal.

Cookies like the ones above start at $2.50 per piece (depending on the level of detail), at a minimum order of 24 pieces. Faithy does decorated cupcakes too, starting at $4 per piece (again depending on level of detail), with a minimum order of 12 pieces. Due to the intricacy of the designs, a lead time of 2 to 3 weeks is required for every order. Please email either Faithy directly at faithybakes@gmail.com, or you can contact either Sharmaine or myself in the usual way (see How to Order at the top right corner of the blog) and we will put you in touch with her.

Our heartfelt thanks to Faithy for her generosity in contributing her cakes.

Christmas is coming soon. Why not surprise someone with a lovingly made one of a kind novelty cake or cookie?

The King Lives!

The request was a birthday cake for SP's dad's 70th birthday celebration. After chatting, we found out SP's dad is an Elvis fan, and so, we thought "Why not an Elvis cake?". So here it is. Elvis in his latter days, a little less lithe and trim perhaps, but Elvis nonetheless. The base cake is 4 layers of moist chocolate genoise moistened with chocolate syrup and frosted with raspberry accented ganache made with home-made raspberry sauce with a hint of white chocolate. Chocolatey and slightly tangy. Yum!

Strawberry, anyone?

My friend J ordered some cupcakes for her daughter M's birthday, to be shared with the little girl's kindergarten class. Being the democratic person that I am, I stoutly declared that M should make the very important decision of choosing the flavour for her cupcakes. I excitedly made up a list - chocolate, tiramisu, lemon, carrot, and as an afterthought (a reluctant afterthought, I may add), threw strawberry into the list, thinking there was no way she would go with strawberry. I mean, how exciting can strawberry be? Strawberry is so ... so predictable isn't it?

Well, M chose strawberry and I dutifully complied. I did say it was a democratic process didn't I? I decided that the strawberry filling will NOT come from a jar. No siree, if I was going to make strawberry cupcakes, the strawberry filling will be completely hand made and home made, short of picking the strawberries myself. So I embarked on an experimenting frenzy, making up batches of strawberry filling till I was completely satisfied. The result was a buttery cupcake filled with a strawberry filling that was neither too tart nor too sweet but the best part was the chunks of strawberry pulp that you could actually sink your teeth into. And the buttercream on top? Good old fashioned vanilla of course, a perfect complement to good old fashioned strawberry. A cupcake after my own heart.

How NOT to make a swimming pool cake

No, the title is not a typo. An alternative title could be the "Heart-stopper cake". This cake brought back happily forgotten memories of knotted stomachs, sweaty palms and enhanced heart rates while being in the office at 2 a.m. with another 2 documents to turn around by the morning.

The birthday girl had a simple request: "Blue swimming pool cake with a slide. Yes, very blue. And flowers". Not being a kiddy cake person, I had my doubts if I could wing it. But I trawled the web for some ideas, was seduced by the photographs and valiantly decided it was going to be fun. After all, how hard can it be? I have done several tiered cakes, I am fairly decent at creating little figurines when playing with my daughter's clay. The water will just be buttercream glazed with blue glazing gel. As I said, what can go wrong? Famous last words.

I decided to do an 11 inch round bottom tier comprising 2 layers of cake, and a small single 6 inch top tier so that the slide has somewhere to flow down from. The cake would be covered with, and the little people made of, fondant. So far so good.

Then things started to go south. In my folly, I decided to cover the bottom layer with a second layer of fondant and then hollow out the centre portion of that cake where the "water" was supposed to be. The idea was that the water would then rest in that little recess and therefore look more realistic. A bit like a big SK-II mask with one big hole in the centre. Big mistake. Huge. For you experienced cake makers out there, can you immediately see where I went wrong?

After composing the cake, it looked pretty good. Here are some pictures.



I was wondering why the sides of the cakes look a little rumpled. I put it to some slip in my execution and just put the cake away.

Around 11 p.m. comes one of those moments when your palm turns from warm to clammy and your tongue dries up in one second flat and you lose the ability even to swear. One section of the cake had collapsed due to the lack of support in the centre of the fondant covering, resulting in the fondant stretching and slowly creeping downwards, such that the sides of the cake sagged like ... well, rude things come to mind but I shall refrain. Suffice to say, I will not be so self-satisfied the next time I look at Cake Wrecks. (No pictures of the wreck though - should have taken some on hindsight.)

What am I going to do?? The party is tomorrow and how am I going to tell the birthday girl and her mother that her very blue swimming pool and slide cake has melted into some Freddy Kreuger's confection? Why or why did I decide to do this baking for charity thing??! Why or why did I cut that stupid hole in the fondant??

No choice. I decided to be ruthless and amputate the saggy slouchy bits. I chopped off all the sides of the cake. Then it's on to making buttercream at 1 a.m. and putting it on the sides to replace the discarded sugar paste. Then slowly putting on bits of rainbow balls at the side to mask the less than perfect sides. And piping a border round the pool to disguise the slouchy shoulders. And redoing the green "grass" again using desiccated coconut. Hubby was kind enough to wait up with me and help me with putting on the rainbow balls and to help clean up. It was past 2 a.m. when we finished. The cake was not as fine as I would like it to be. The piping was not neat and the pool and figures were starting to look tired from all that surgery. Can't worry about it anymore. We went to bed.

And the result? Here are some pictures. See if you can spot the difference.




Well, the cake was not all I wanted it to be, but at least I could deliver a cake! And all things considered, I think my rescue operation was good given the circumstances. Most importantly, the birthday gal and the kids loved it anyway. They completely overlooked the slightly sloping shoulders and the less than perfect piping and just oohed and aahed at the little people on the cake, which they promptly devoured. I think they were quite thrilled that the cake was a swimming pool and had a slide. Aren't kids just wonderful?

Oh yes, at least the chocolate cake was delicious. Moist and chocolatey without being dense.

So in conclusion, here is how NOT to make a swimming pool cake:

1. Don't cut a hole in the middle of a fondant layer. Without the centre support, the sides will sag and eventually parts of it will collapse.
2. Don't use cheap fondant. I have found Massa Ticino to be wonderful in our humid weather, even if more expensive. Worth every penny. Does not crack no matter how you handle it. Yes, you guessed it, I ran out of Massa Ticino and used some other brand which regrettably does not perform the same way.
3. Don't put the figurines on the gel till the last minute. The colouring in them will seep into the blue of the "water" if left to stand overnight. Not pretty.
4. Don't put the cake in the fridge. The figurines looked as though they were glistening with sweat after some time out of the fridge due to the humidity in the air and the temperature change.
5. I would skip the buttercream undercoat for the water and just use glazing gel next time.
6. I would make the cake as a buttercream cake instead of a fondant cake the next time.

I must be crazy, but after the party I told hubby, "I know now exactly what NOT to do, so the next time I will be able to do it much better. I want to do it again!" He shook his head resignedly and I thought I heard him mutter something like "Seow".

Seriously, but for the heart stopping collapse, I did have fun making the cake and the figurines (thanks AL for trusting me enough to make the cake though I don't really do kiddy cakes and there are lots of people out there way more experienced than I in this area), and ... I really would love the chance to do it again - can somebody out there please order one from me soon? I promise it will be good this time round!

A fund-raising event called A Very Special Walk was organised by Pathlight School in aid of Eden School last month. As you know, all proceeds from the sale of cakes at Hearts and Hands go to the Eden school building fund for this year. We were very honoured to be invited to contribute cupcakes for sale at the event which comprised movie screenings coupled with food stalls pretty much like a fun fair. It was all great fun and extremely well organised. Kudos go to both Pathlight and Eden for putting up a really impressive affair. Read more about the event at www.edenschool.edu.sg.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. It was a baking and decorating marathon which resulted in 120 cupcakes comprising coffee streusel with vanilla buttercream and chocolate cupcakes with malt frosting which will shortly be renamed Horlicks Golightly, but that's for another post. All in, it was great fun and hugely rewarding. We are glad to have been a small part of this fund-raising effort; it made waking up at 5am to roll out fondant decorations oh so satisfying.